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United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust oversees four hospitals in the county - Lincoln County Hospital, Grantham and District Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital and County Hospital Louth.

The findings came as part of a two-year study published by the British Medical Association (BMA).

The report found that doctors who have been bullied said that it has destroyed their confidence and, in some instances, caused serious or lasting harm to their lives and careers.

Those who have been a witness to such behaviour have also stated that they are more likely to time off sick or want to change jobs.

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Bullying among employees of the NHS trust was not the only concern – more than quarter of staff said that they had been bullied, harassed or abused by patients, their relatives or other members of the family last year.

The BMA’s study found that bullying in the workplace was not just an issue about individual relationships.

It was often a reflection of pressures in the system, poor working environments, top-down ‘command and control’ leadership, and a culture that accepted such behaviour as the norm.

Two-thirds of the of staff in the ULHT NHS trust felt that the pressures of the job was the main reason for bullying taking place.

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Dr Anthea Mowat, BMA bullying and harassment project sponsor, said: “Bullying in medicine can bring to mind images of a junior doctor being shouted at by a senior, or a surgeon angrily throwing instruments across the room.

“But the experiences we have heard through the BMA’s bullying and harassment project show it can affect all kinds of doctor and medical student. We know that other staff in the NHS are affected too – one in four according to the NHS staff surveys.

“As well as damaging staff, bullying also impacts on patients and the consequences for patient care and safety are serious. In workplaces where bullying is common, communication and teamwork suffer, and staff are afraid to raise legitimate concerns about patient care or safety.

“The BMA report not only looks at the problems but also offers some real solutions to bring an end to a culture that has existed for far too long.”

Martin Rayson, ULHT’s director of human resources and organisational development, said: “The results from the staff survey last year were disappointing.

"I think the NHS as a whole is concerned that around a quarter of staff feel that they have experienced bullying and of course the results in ULHT were slightly higher than the average.

"Reflecting the action being taken across the NHS, we have re-emphasised to all our staff that we have a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and will take action where it is specifically brought to our attention.

“We have strengthened processes for staff to report bullying or any other concerns that they have.

"We have a project under way, led by our chaplaincy team, to understand more about why people responded to the survey in the way that they did and we await the outcome of that work, which will help us in determining what further action we need to take.

“The 2018 staff survey is now under way and we hope our staff will respond in big numbers, so that we get a sense of how they are feeling on this and other topics and we hope that our scores around bullying will show that the actions we are taking are having some effect.”